NCLB: Local educators not sold on act

Thursday

Editor’s Note: This is the third story in a series on No Child Left Behind.

Editor’s Note: This is the third story in a series on No Child Left Behind.

Local teachers and administrators say the federal No Child Left Behind Act is unrealistic and needs to be fixed.

“It’s a political kind of a topic,” Ridgecrest Charter School director Don Beene said. “To me it’s just another set of mandates.”

“I do not like No Child Left Behind. It’s doing a major disservice to this generation of students,” Las Flores Elementary School Principal Ron Carter said. “The intense pressure it puts on classroom teachers in unrealistic and not fair. The fact that principals’ and teachers’ careers are now dependent on how kids 7 years old to 18 years old do on a one-day test is wrong.”

He said the act requires all students to be proficient or advanced levels.

“That’s mathematically impossible. It’s not going to happen,” he said. “If you’re not meeting the benchmarks of No Child Left Behind, you’re made an improvement school. If you still don’t reach the benchmarks in the third or fourth year, you’re supposed to be making preparations for your school to become a charter school.”

He said schools can also be taken over, principals can be fired, and teachers can be removed from the school.

“That’s all punitive. That’s all negative,” said Carter. “That is harming somebody’s career based on how kids do on a one-day test. You cannot put that type of pressure and stress on principals and teachers if they’re going to lose their jobs based on how kids do on a standardized test.”

He pointed out that Sierra Sands’ test scores are among the highest in the state, so it won’t be affected like a lot of other districts around the country.

“We take kids where they are when they come into the school. A lot of the students that we get are lacking academically,” Carter said. “That gives us an added challenge to bring those kids up to speed.”

Carter said he does not have a problem with the state standards.

“I don’t have a problem with the testing if the testing is used the way it should be used. It should be used for a curriculum — where are the gaps in the curriculum, what changes do you need to make in the curriculum and to teaching techniques,” he added.

He said many changes are needed.

“It’s all about kids, and all of us understand that,” said Burroughs High School Principal Ernie Bell. “Certain parts of No Child Left Behind are very difficult to do.”

One is assessments, he said. “I don’t know that they have a true understanding of what’s really going on in the school, however they’re mandating that the schools do all these things.”

To fix the act, Bell said lawmakers need to truly understand what is going on in school districts and provide them with the financial resources to do those things.”

“In California, your proficient is the same as other states’ advanced,” Carter said. “If we were in line with some of the other states, our proficient would be basic, so it’s going to be a lot easier if we were to get all of our kids into the basic and proficient versus the way it is now, where we’ve got a higher mark for our kids to achieve than a lot of the other states.”

Teachers Bev Pippen and Sue Marvin say the law is unrealistic.

“The reality in the classroom is that kids come in with different abilities and different levels of achievement,” said Marvin. “You can work and work and work with them, and some will respond to it, and some will not be ready for it.”

Pippen said a father told her that if received a product that is broken, he can throw it away.

“You don’t have that option,” she quoted him as saying. “That’s really true. Sometimes we have children come to us with so many issues that they’re almost broken, and we have to go back and try to rebuild them from the bottom up, and it takes longer than 180 days to do that.”

She said there is so much pressure on children that they are required to do things normally done at higher grade levels.

“In every classroom, you have your lows, your middles and your highs,” Marvin said. “That’s just a fact, and that isn’t changing. I think it’s getting worse because our state standards are so aggressive in that they require so much of our kids.”

“It may have been okay on paper, and the theory may have been good, but once it actually became reality, then you find you can never outdo what’s good enough,” Pippen added.

“What the legislature should do is ask classroom teachers,” Marvin said.

“While the intent of NCLB is to raise standards nationwide in all areas of education, kindergarten through 12th grade, the reality is the opposite,” said Desert Area Teachers Association President Maureen Glennon.

The federal government is mandating that all children in school reach the "proficient level" by 2014.

“Proficient in California means an 80 percent score or better on all standardized tests,” she said. “Additionally, students in California must pass the California High School Exit Exam, to graduate. This includes an exam in high school algebra as well as language arts.”

Glennon said teachers are working hard to meet these demands, but no allowance is made or extra funding available to increase scores in districts, like ours, who do not qualify for additional monies because our scores are too high.

“Students and schools in deciles 1-3 receive those funds. There are other factors that contribute to the difficulty of achieving proficient,” she added. “These include a very late start date for children entering kindergarten, (California allows students to enroll up to and including a Dec. 2 birth date, while other states mandate that those entering kindergarten be 5 by Sept. 1), an increasing population of students who speak English as a second language, no preschool experience, a curriculum that teaches reading, writing and computation in kindergarten, attendance concerns, and a variety of other issues.

“We are asking more of our students each year, and each year the state of California measures growth based upon the scores of a series of tests administered rigorously,” said Glennon. “The expectations do not allow for children with special needs or those who simply do not test well. The schools are judged and compared instead of receiving praise for a job well done. NCLB is not a reasonable set of expectations for students, schools or teachers.

“The schools here in Sierra Sands have much to be proud of — good students, families and a community that are supportive, excellent teachers, administrators and staff,” she said.

Contact John Ciani at jciani@ridgecrestca.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.